With the UFC, the world’s biggest mixed martial arts company being the first sports company to return to live sports in May, it only made sense that Invicta FC, the world’s biggest women’s mixed martial art league, would be the second with Invicta FC 40 taking place this Thursday, July 4th from Kansas City, Kansas on UFC Fight Pass.
In the main event, former strawweight title contender, Emily “Gordinha” Ducote (8-6) will take on Juliana “Ju Thai” Lima (10-6) and the Oklahoman is more than ready to get back inside the cage. “I was pretty hopeful that when the UFC got up and running, shows would start popping up,” explained Ducote. “I was happy that Shannon got everything confirmed, so I’m very excited for this.”
As many gyms were closed during the lockdown, Ducote’s boyfriend is the owner of the gym she trains at and was still allowed to go there, but enjoyed changing it up a bit for this camp. “I really enjoyed the outside time,” said Ducote. “There is just something about working out outside that energizes me. I just did my best to do as much as I could and I’m not happy with the situation with the world obviously, but I am happy with myself and my camp and I did enjoy the time training differently.”
As the UFC has been criticized recently for pairing up whomever is available for some of their events lately, Ducote’s match with Lima has been in the works for a while and she is ready to put her skills up against the Brazilians on fight night. “There was going to a show maybe in May, then maybe in June and got pushed back again and was finally finalized in July,” said Ducote. “So I’ve been very hopeful I would be on the card, however didn’t know who or when, so I’m not sure if this matchup is a result of who’s available or anything, but we are similar in records and experience, so I feel like it’s a similar match up.”
Having already been in two title fights, once in Invicta and once during her time under the Bellator banner, Ducote is still open to another title shot but would rather focus on the fight in front of her and showing the fruits of the hard labor she has put in. “I do my best in my fight camp to prepare for everything the best that I can,” explained Ducote. “And I just like everyone to know that I will do my best in fight camp and I will do my best on fight night. I feel like I’ve shown that before and will show that again.”
Invicta FC 40 will air live and exclusively on UFC Fight Pass on Thursday, June 2nd at 7pm CT.
Photo credit: Dave Mandel/Invicta Fighting Chammpionships
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